i give it a year speech

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I Give It a Year – review

A world-weary Somerset Maugham began his last major novel, The Razor's Edge , with the lapidary comment: "Death ends all things and so is the comprehensive conclusion of a story, but marriage finishes it very properly too and the sophisticated are ill-advised to sneer at what is by convention termed a happy ending." Tell that to the would-be sophisticated authors of the endless cycle of dreadful marriage comedies currently filling our screens and don't be afraid to sneer.

Written and directed by Dan Mazer, Sacha Baron Cohen's chief collaborator, I Give It a Year opens with the most embarrassing wedding sequence ever contrived, including the worst best-man's speech in movie history, and proceeds to look at the first year in the ill-considered marriage of a blocked novelist and his wife, a supposedly successful PR person. Made by people desperately bent on putting the "lewd" into "ludic" and featuring a collection of characters you might meet in some special British annexe of hell, I Give It a Year deserves a much harsher sentence than the title suggests and without remission for good conduct.

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Stephen Merchant funny best man speech in 'I Give It A Year' - video

Stephen Merchant delivers a hilarious best man speech in a new preview from I Give It A Year .

The British comedy stars Rafe Spall and Rose Byrne as a pair of newlyweds struggling to get to grips with married life.

The new clip sees Merchant's Danny make a series of gaffes and ill-advised gags during his speech at Josh (Spall) and Nat's (Byrne) wedding.

"Nat's got it all," Danny says. "She's brilliantly clever, apparently really delivers in the bedroom, like mother like daughter. And I don't know about you but I feel she could easily be a model if it wasn't for her nose."

Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat and Bruno writer Dan Mazer makes his directorial debut with I Give It A Year .

Anna Faris, Simon Baker, Jason Flemyng, Minnie Driver and Olivia Colman round out the supporting cast for the Working Title Films comedy.

I Give It A Year will open in UK cinemas on February 8.

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Simon has worked as a journalist for more than a decade, writing on staff and freelance for Hearst, Dennis, Future and Autovia titles before joining Cision in 2022.

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I Give It a Year

Newlywed couple Nat and Josh are deliriously happy despite their differences, though friends and family aren't convinced that they can last. With their first anniversary approaching and attr... Read all Newlywed couple Nat and Josh are deliriously happy despite their differences, though friends and family aren't convinced that they can last. With their first anniversary approaching and attractive alternatives in the mix, can they last? Newlywed couple Nat and Josh are deliriously happy despite their differences, though friends and family aren't convinced that they can last. With their first anniversary approaching and attractive alternatives in the mix, can they last?

• Alex Macqueen
• 139 User reviews
• 131 Critic reviews
• 50 Metascore
• 1 win & 1 nomination

• Toastmaster

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Did you know

• Trivia Director Dan Mazer was worried about the two main cast members, Rose Byrne and Rafe Spall , because when they met, they bonded and had great chemistry. But in the movie, the two aren't supposed to.
• Goofs When Josh is listening to the voice mail from Chloe, his iPhone is still locked on the home screen.

Nat : We have an incredible sex life, but that's not the point. I love the Michael Jackson "Off the Wall" album, but I wouldn't necessarily want to only listen to that the rest of my life.

Naomi : Yeah, Oh honey, I been there. I mean you'll listen to it a lot in the beginning. You'll listen to it in all sorts of places. You'll listen to it in the car, in the disabled toilet cubicle in the McDonald's in Egham... in your unconscious Granny's hospital room.

Nat : Granny Mary?

Naomi : It's what she would have wanted... But then you know, you get to the point where you're not that bothered about listened to music at all. You just play it on birthdays or when you're very very drunk. Or, if someone shows you a Justin Bieber video when you're in the office and then you know, all you can think about is that.

Chloe : Isn't he like 15?

Naomi : Oh, he'd know what to do... I'd ruin Bieber!

Nat : You Would! You would ruin him.

• Connections Featured in Film '72: Episode dated 6 February 2013 (2013)
• Soundtracks Never Knew Love Like This Before Written by Reggie Lucas and James Mtume Performed by Jessie Ware Courtesy of Island Records Ltd. Under license from Universal Music Operations Ltd.

User reviews 139

• khunkrumark
• Jan 12, 2019
• How long is I Give It a Year? Powered by Alexa
• February 8, 2013 (United Kingdom)
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Official site
• Wrotham Park, Barnet, Hertfordshire, England, UK (wedding reception)
• StudioCanal
• Starcrossed Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Aug 11, 2013
• $29,128,433

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• Runtime 1 hour 37 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Watch: Stephen Merchant’s Awkward Best Man Speech In Clip From ‘I Give It A Year’

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It may not have a U.S. release date yet (or even a distributor for that matter) but we’re still looking forward to the British rom-com “ I Give It A Year .” The film is Dan Mazer ’s first as director (after a string of writing credits on Sacha Baron Cohen ’s TV shows and movies) and stars Rafe Spall and Rose Byrne as a couple exploring the trials and tribulations that occur during their first year of marriage. The cast also boasts Anna Faris, Simon Baker, Jason Flemyng, Minnie Driver  and – as you’ll see from the following clip – Stephen Merchant .

The latest clip from the movie unsurprisingly comes from the film’s first proper scene, and it features Merchant’s Danny delivering a very inappropriate Best Man’s speech. If you’ve watched any of the trailers for the movie then you’ll have seen a few of the gags from this sequence already, but it’s well worth watching in its entirety.

The film is due for release in the UK on February 8th so the promotional push for the movie is really starting to pick up some steam. Hopefully if it performs well either critically or commercially in its native country then it might be able to snag a North American release – and you’d have to imagine that a wedding comedy starring Rose Byrne wouldn’t be the hardest thing to market.

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I Give It A Year

Romantic comedies are rigidly formulaic, which is part of what people enjoy about them. Most throw two gorgeous people together and concoct various impediments to their inevitable clinch, with the most common impediment being that they’re complete opposites who take an instant dislike toward each other. Over the course of the movie, the audience watches them slowly realize that they’re in love. I Give It A Year, the directorial debut of Sacha Baron Cohen’s longtime writing partner, Dan Mazer, ingeniously reverses this template, opening with a marriage and then observing the couple’s first 12 months together, during which it slowly dawns on them that they’ve made a huge, mutual mistake. That Mazer succeeds in playing this for laughs—however sporadic—rather than as a kitchen-sink downer is an achievement in itself.

Both parties have a proper soul mate waiting in the wings, so that helps. Having gotten hitched after a whirlwind seven-month courtship, Rose Byrne and Rafe Spall move almost instantly from the infatuation stage to the “every single thing you do sets my teeth on edge” stage. She finds him boorish and insensitive; he thinks she’s stuffy and humorless. Frankly, it’s hard to comprehend how they fell for each other (or even imagined they did) in the first place, given their blatant incompatibility. Their stubborn refusal to acknowledge the obvious, however—which would entail admitting failure—rings true. As their disenchantment grows, Spall increasingly finds excuses to hang out with the former girlfriend (Anna Faris) he never officially broke up with, while Byrne engages in heavy flirtation with a new client (Simon Baker) who’s much more her urbane type. Still, neither wants to be the one who throws in the towel.

This is an inspired idea for a rom-com, and Mazer makes it pay off with a climactic speech that’s at once a parody of the genre and utterly, bizarrely heartfelt. Getting there is a somewhat bumpy ride, though, because he can’t quite decide whether he’s making a wry comedy of manners or an outrageous, Borat -style raunchfest. Stephen Merchant overstays his welcome as Spall’s obscenely lecherous best friend, and when the couple’s new digital photo album displays their homemade porn to family members, or Faris takes part in a gymnastically awkward ménage à trois , the movie starts to seem a bit desperate. But it continually recovers via endearing nuggets of minor idiocy, like Spall stationing himself next to good joke material at a party so that he can repeat the same one-liners to everyone who happens along. Even if the gags’ hit-to-miss ratio isn’t what it might be, originality counts for something. Half of all marriages end in divorce; for a movie not only to acknowledge that but to treat it as inspirational—well, it’s oddly inspiring.

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Watching "I Give It a Year," a new romantic comedy directed by Dan Mazer (he also wrote the screenplay), is a bizarre experience. It's not romantic in the slightest, and it is quite comedic on occasion, but the parts don't fit together at all. It jerks along on its own jagged trajectory, with a silly soul dying to burst through and take over but never quite succeeding, and the end result is truly strange. "I Give It a Year" is clearly not interested in the common clichés of the genre, although said clichés are present and acknowledged. The title alone clues us in to the film's attitude about the marriage in question. The cast is terrific (from the leads down to those who have one or two lines), and there are a couple of sequences that made me laugh out loud, but the movie as a whole is baffling.

The opening sequence shows a montage of a whirlwind relationship between Josh ( Rafe Spall ) and Nat ( Rose Byrne ). They marry seven months after their first meeting. During the wedding ceremony, the priest has a coughing fit before he can say the words "husband and wife," and Minnie Driver , who gives a deliciously bitter performance as Naomi, Nat's sister, murmurs to her husband, "I give it a year." 

Surrounding the couple is a merry band of characters from the rom-com playbook. There is Danny, Josh's best friend, played by Ricky Gervais's long-time creative partner, Stephen Merchant . Danny brings the "inappropriate best man speech" to a new level of awkwardness, and you have to wonder about Josh's character that he would choose such a moron as a friend. Naomi and her husband ( Jason Flemyng ) live in a coiled state of mutual disdain. When Nat asks her sister for marriage advice, Naomi says with a supportive smile, "Embrace the hatred." Josh's ex-girlfriend Chloe (played by Anna Faris ) is an American ex-pat who works for a charity fighting epidemics in Africa. Josh and Chloe have remained friends, although the dismayed look on Chloe's face during the wedding reception is eloquent of unfinished business.

Josh is a novelist. He can't seem to finish his next book and spends his days lying around playing video games. Nat works as an executive in an ad agency, and is competent and driven. There is a class critique in the film. Nat says to someone that she was accustomed to driving Ferraris, and Josh represents a "Volvo," and, rather despicably, "I just needed to be behind the wheel of a Volvo for a while." There is no honeymoon period. Instantly upon getting married, Nat seethes with resentment about toilet seats being left up and who takes out the trash. Before Nat and Josh reach their one-year anniversary, they are in couples counseling, a device used to frame the storyline. As artificial as the device is, Olivia Colman is hysterical as the embittered man-hating couples counselor.

Through her job, Nat meets Guy, another American, who is looking to re-brand his cleaning-products company. Guy is played by Simon Baker , who breezes through the film with the same ease and insistently romantic leading man energy that he brought to the wonderful and under-rated " Something New ." Nat does not inform Guy that she is married; in fact, she takes off her ring in his presence. She thinks flirting with him might help her nail the account, but also, the man is handsome, urbane and seems to "get" her. He's a Ferrari, in other words. Guy proceeds to court her in a ridiculous scene involving a wandering violin player, and two fluttering white doves who, unfortunately, are flying around in a room where there is a huge whirring ceiling fan. Disaster ensues. Guy and Nat begin a wild flirtation, and Josh and Chloe find themselves drawn to one another again. Nat and Josh decide to set up Guy and Chloe on a date, because that would be a good idea, right? The couples double-date, all while throwing longing glances diagonally across the pool table. 

The violins-and-doves scene, indeed the entire film, might have had potential, if the moviemakers had felt free to be truly silly. Silliness is not a bad thing. I wish more movies felt free to be silly. "I Give It a Year" wants to be silly, and the performances are often extremely silly, but it also wants to be touching, and that is its fatal flaw. The story is really akin to a French farce, with adulterous couples running in and out of rooms, slamming doors, mistaking identities left and right, and behaving horribly. Sentiment has no business intruding in such a brutal comedy of manners.

Despite all of the problems with the film, the cast is good, Anna Faris in particular. Anna Faris has the sensibility of a Madeline Kahn , whose ability to transform herself was directly related to her uncanny ability to understand the tragic/comedic underpinnings of almost everything she did. Faris is unrecognizable here, with long brown hair, and baggy clothing. She manages to bring a unique spin to what could have been a drippy character, the earnest do-gooder. Josh's sudden marriage sucks for her, but she does not think it good form to whine about it. She sits on her couch, wearing a Sponge Bob Squarepants bathrobe, trying to be a good sport as he tells her about his marriage. Faris is a character actress, end-stop, and her work is always interesting, exciting even.

Rafe Spall, who played the drunken Will Shakespeare in " Anonymous ," takes what is also a cliché (the useless husband who lies in the apartment all day), and does some interesting things with it. He is awkward; he has a way of muttering things to himself which reveal his real thoughts and then backtracking wildly when someone overhears. His sense of inferiority with his uptight in-laws is acute and causes him to behave like a blurting lunatic in their presence (one scene of charades is enough awkwardness to last a lifetime, not to mention a slideshow of photos that goes horribly, horribly wrong). It's difficult to believe that he is an author who has actually published a book. He doesn't seem to do anything, think anything, desire anything. Even his desire for Chloe is lukewarm. You get the sense that Chloe would be better off cutting herself loose from this entire crowd. She deserves better. So do we. 

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

I Give It A Year (2013)

Anna Faris as Chloe

Rose Byrne as Nat

Rafe Spall as Josh

Jason Flemyng as Hugh

Stephen Merchant as Danny

Minnie Driver as Naomi

Olivia Colman as Linda

Jane Asher as Diana

Tim Key as Alan

Alex MacQueen as Minister

Simon Baker as Guy

Nigel Planer as Brian

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‘I Give It a Year’ movie review

So many films end with a wedding that it seems like a fresh idea to start a movie with one, especially a union that doesn't guarantee a happily ever after. But the British film " I Give It a Year " doesn't deliver much else in the way of originality. In addition to some trite set pieces, writer-director Dan Mazer serves up nothing more than conspicuous cynicism masquerading as comedy.

As the opening credits roll, Josh (Rafe Spall) meets and woos Nat (Rose Byrne). Their seven-month courtship leads to a wedding that nearly everyone thinks is too soon. Nat’s sister, Naomi (Minnie Driver), is a chronic killjoy, but you have to admit she has a point when she utters the line that gives the film its title, and during the ceremony, no less.

That the officiant bursts into a coughing spasm just as he’s about to pronounce the pair husband and wife foreshadows the difficulties to come. But a terrible best-man speech — that old chestnut — not to mention the declaration by Josh’s parents that the first year of marriage is a nightmare, broadcasts a decisive forecast: The honeymoon is over, and it hasn’t even begun.

The biggest problem turns out to be that Nat and Josh don’t like each other. It’s easy to see why, given that neither party is particularly pleasant. Nat is uptight and gloomy, and Josh is a lazy numskull whose career as a novelist consists mostly of sitting on the couch. Another complication emerges as more suitable partners appear for both husband and wife. Josh has the same childish sense of humor as his ex-girlfriend, Chloe (a brunette Anna Faris), who returns to London from Africa just in time for the wedding. And Nat’s new client, Guy (Simon Baker), is dashing and painfully serious. What’s more, Guy wants to be with Nat, and Chloe still loves Josh.

As their emotional affairs heat up, Nat and Josh become increasingly mean and easily exasperated by all the things you might expect. Nat realizes her husband might be incapable of replacing toilet paper rolls and taking out the trash. And Josh finds his wife’s habit of singing along to songs, even though she doesn’t know the words, grating. There is not one reasonable person in this movie’s world who can offer some perspective on how to treat a person, much less a spouse. Instead, Josh and Nat confer with an incompetent marriage counselor, who pauses their session to take a phone call during which she threatens to stab her husband in the eye, and the surly Naomi, who tells Nat to “embrace the hatred.”

As the movie tries to find comedy in mean-spiritedness, it also relies heavily on oversharing as a source of laughs. Mazer has plenty of experience with awkward humor given that he co-wrote episodes of " Da Ali G Show ," as well as " Borat " and " Bruno ." But so many of the characters in "I Give It a Year" seem to have misplaced their filters that the different variations on the same joke become tiresome.

With the exception of Guy and Chloe, the characters are either hostile or generous only with details no one wants to hear. Unhappily ever after might be the outcome they deserve.

R. At Landmark's Bethesda Row Cinema. Contains sexual situations, language and nudity. 97 minutes.

I Give It A Year

A comedy about the trials and tribulations of a pair of newlyweds during their first year as a married couple. Stars Rafe Spall and Rose Byrne. Stars Rose Byrne , Anna Faris , Rafe Spall , Simon Baker , Alex Macqueen and more .

Stephen Merchant's Terrible Wedding Speech

Turns out that Josh really shouldn't have given Danny ( Stephen Merchant ) the role of being his best man. Here is his toe-curlingly ill-advised wedding speech.

Featuring: Stephen Merchant (Danny).

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Film / I Give It a Year

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I Give It a Year is a 2013 romantic comedy film, written and directed by Dan Mazer and starring Rose Byrne , Rafe Spall , Anna Faris and Simon Baker . It was released on 8 February 2013. The film was Mazer's directorial debut, after he was previously best known for co-writing the Sacha Baron Cohen films Borat and Brüno .

This film features examples of:

• Amicable Exes : Nat and Josh end up being this after they realize that they aren't made for each other. He even tells her he thinks she is the perfect wife, just not for him.
• Dinner and a Show : Nat and Josh throw a dinner party to use their wedding gifts, in which some of their differences are highlighted when talking about their honeymoon in Morocco; Nat didn't enjoy the leather museum whereas Josh remembers it as interesting. Then the topic changes to Chloe, Josh's former flame, where Nat discovers they never officially broke up when she went to Africa for four years. In the kitchen Chloe, who is present there, apologises to Nat for not realising she didn't know. Nat's sister Naomia also reveals to have issues with her own husband's annoying habits.
• Fourth-Date Marriage : Downplayed; Nat and Josh marry after seven months of dating, but is nonetheless among the reasons why many of their friends think the marriage will not last.
• Mondegreen Gag : The main couple Nat and Josh argue over misheard song lyrics. Nat thinks the lyrics from "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This" go "I travelled the world in generic jeans" instead of "I travelled the world and the seven seas", much to Josh's chagrin. She also thinks the line from "We Built This City" goes "we built this city on the wrong damn road". Josh also brings up the lyrics from "Tiny Dancer", which Nat thinks goes "hold me close and tie me down sir".
• Pair the Spares : Each of the main couple, Nat and Josh, has a rival love interest, Guy and Chloe, respectively. The rivals date for a while, but the trope is subverted in the end, Nat and Josh finish up leaving each other for the rival suitors Guy and Chloe .
• Race for Your Love : Josh ends up doing this at the end, catching Guy and Chloe at a railway station waiting to go to Paris, to profess his love for Chloe after splitting up with Nat. This is shortly followed by Nat appearing there to do the same with Guy .
• Romantic False Lead : Guy and Chloe appear to be this, as Nat and Josh express attraction to them respectively, but turn out to be a subverted example, as the film ends with Nat and Josh actually breaking up to be with them.
• Starter Marriage : Nat and Josh's friends clearly think that this is the case.
• Sucks at Dancing : At a party, Josh dances embarrassingly. This (alongside other antics) annoys and embarrasses Nat so much that she heads home without him.
• Worst Wedding Ever : While Nat and Josh's wedding actually goes as planned, it is nonetheless marred by many of their friends commenting that the marriage will not last, an embarrassing best man's speech, and a coughing priest.
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Exclusive I Give It a Year Blooper: Best Man Speech Disaster

Stephen Merchant brings the comedy improv LOLs

It's highly likely that even if you haven't seen I Give It a Year , you've heard about that Best Man Speech.

But even funnier than that are the brilliant blooper outtakes.

We've got an exclusive look at the DVD and Blu-ray extras in this blooper clip showing Stephen Merchant getting his Best/Worst Man act into gear, and bringing Rose Byrne to helpless giggles with one of his guest shout-outs.

I Give It a Year is available to buy on DVD from 3 June 2013.

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New Clip from I Give It A Year – Stephen Merchant’s Best Man’s Speech

The latest trailer landed just before Christmas, giving us another excellent look at the film, shortly followed by a hilarious first clip and new images .

And with just a few short weeks before it arrives, StudioCanal have now released another great clip, focusing on Stephen Merchant and his best man’s speech.

“Since they met at a party, ambitious high-flyer Nat (Byrne) and struggling novelist Josh (Spall) have been deliriously happy despite their differences. Josh is a thinker, Nat’s a doer ..but the spark between them is undeniable. Their wedding is a dream come true, but family, friend and even the minister who marries them aren’t convinced that they can last. Josh’s ex-girlfriend, Chloe (Faris), and Nat’s handsome American client Guy (Baker), could offer attractive alternatives. With their first anniversary approaching, neither wants to be the first to give up, but will they make it?”

Rafe Spall (Life of Pi), Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids), Anna Faris (Scary Movie), and Simon Baker (The Mentalist) star as the leading quartet. And joining them is an excellent supporting cast, headed up by Merchant (An Idiot Abroad), Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting), Olivia Colman (Tyrannosaur), and the ever-brilliant Jason Flemyng (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels).

Oscar nominee Mazer (Borat, Brüno) is directing from his own script, making his feature debut as a director. It looks to be a very promising debut too, with Kris Thykier (Kick-Ass) and Oscar nominees, Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan (The Big Lebowski, Shaun of the Dead, Love Actually), producing.

I Give It A Year will be released in UK theatres on 8 th February, and it’s definitely one to commit to memory to see when it hits. No word yet on a US release date, but here’s to hoping that it will be heading across the Atlantic soon. For now, here’s the great new clip. Enjoy.

[yframe url=’www.youtube.com/watch?v=z589wIZe92g’]

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7 tips  for a memorable New Year speech.

7 tips  for your New Year speech.

New Year is one of those pivotal moments. This is an ideal opportunity to stop, leave a bad things behind, reinforce beliefs, (re)unite people, and reenergize for the future. No matter if you are CEO of a large corporation, coach of your son’s football team, or granddad to an abounding offspring, if you are a leader, you are expected to say something. So, you’d better seize this golden opportunity and say something memorable.

Everyone has their own style and every talking opportunity is different. There are no fixed rules, but here are a few tips for your New Year speech. I’d appreciate if you let me know how it went.

7 tips for your New Year speech

• Prepare to be short
• Tell them what they know
• Focus on why
• Make it personal
• Sprinkle with emotion
• Be memorable
• Do it with style

1. Prepare to be short

You need at least 3 minutes to get a message across, and boredom will strike if you talk longer than 10. Accept that people will only remember 2-3 things of what you say, and even less if you talk longer.

Being short requires preparation and hard work. So, prepare well. Think about the one thing you would like to achieve with your New Year speech. What do you want them to remember? What is your key message? Structure your talk, find some anecdotes, a metaphor, quote or joke. Possibly write out your speech but make sure to use your own honest words; not some kind of formal, wooden language.

“If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.”― Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States from 1913-1921

2. Say what they already know

Unless you are getting married or if you’re 6 weeks pregnant, the end-of-year season is not the moment to announce something totally new. People are in festive mode, and potentially under the influence of a drink or two. Therfore, avoid announcing new things that require their full attention or a substantial effort.

A New Year speech is a moment to reinforce things. Reinforce the values, the team spirit, the positive vibes,… And don’t be afraid to repeat yourself. We all like to hear familiar things that we agree with. Children all love to hear the fairy-tales they already know. And grown-ups are only tall children, especially after a drink or two.

You can simply start by enumerating what happened last year, how that impacted us, and how that made you feel… You will see and hear the Yeaahhh’s in the room. It will get them in a positive and agreeable mood.

3. Focus on the why

People don’t believe in you because of what you do, but because of why you do it. It is not the product that unites the employees of a company, but their love for innovative technology, their creative pride, or their dedication to the customer. It is not Uncle Phillip’s new Ferrari that will make his nephews adore him, but his love for Italian design and technology, his craving for speed, or his success as a business man. In fact, the Ferrari is merely a metaphor, or a shiny but superficial expression of a far deeper drive.

So, focus on why you do what you do. Why do you get up in the morning? Why are you in business? Why do you feel like one big family? Why are you different compared to others? It is all about purpose, belief, vision, feeling, drive, values or fundamental happiness. That is what your New Year speech should be about.

4. Make it personal

Your story is about you and the others. So talk about others, but don’t omit to talk about yourself.

Most things in life only become meaningful when in relationship to others: business, sport, family, success and even money. Without others they are meaningless. So, talk about your colleagues, your customers, your suppliers, your children, your parents, your opponents,… And thank them. The worthiest people always give credit to the others. Especially talk about your audience and how much you appreciate them. Put individuals in your audience in the leading role of your anecdotes.

But people will only believe you when they feel the words come from your authentic self, right from your heart. So don’t avoid speaking about yourself either. Tell them how you feel about what you’ve achieved, why you are proud… There is nothing as arrogant as fake humility.

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To-the-point presentations, impactful, time-saving, clear, and concise, 5. sprinkle with emotion.

Emotion moves people. It makes them think. It makes them decide. It makes them change, and most importantly it makes them remember. It is the emotion you evoke that will make your words stick in their minds.

Evoking emotion can be done in many different ways. It is partly in what you say, and partly in how you say it, in letting them feel your own emotion. How you do this is highly dependent on the culture and the occasion.  You can openly express your emotions or just vaguely suggest them. Here are a few things to consider.

Don’t avoid the negative. There can’t be ups without downs. There can’t be positive without negative emotions. Expressing negative emotions rids us of their negative effects. So don’t avoid the things that went bad last year. Name them and honestly tell your audience how it made you feel. At the same time show that you can put things in perspective and see the positive things in the most negative experiences.

Be positive overall. Your audience wants to be left with a positive feeling. They want to see that you are positively, happily, confidently looking towards the future. Give them that. Make sure that the positive moments in your talk outweigh the negative ones.

Have fun. Since beginning of mankind, jesters and clowns helped us forget misery. People who laugh more, live longer. We laugh when we are happy, and laughing also makes us happy. Even if you’re not a born joker, use a funny anecdote, or a funny metaphor. Just make sure it is appropriate for the occasion and for your relationship to the audience. If you feel unsure about it, test it with someone beforehand. At least try to laugh and make them laugh. It will make your talk memorable:

7. Whatever you do, do it with style.

There are so many things you could do or say. But most important is to be your natural, authentic self with a little extra: Show confidence by going outside your usual circle of confidence. Dare trying something new. People want you to be successful as a speaker, so they will easily forgive a small mistake or an awkward moment.

Being well prepared implies that you have probably written out your speech. Rehearsing that text is the only way to memorize the words and to check the length of your speech. Just avoid reading the text when addressing your audience. Eye contact is most important when talking to people, but it is impossible when your mind is focused on following the words in your carefully printed text, especially when you discover that the 12-point font is way too small in the poor light conditions.

And when the moment comes to stand up and address your audience, you will probably feel the urge to get it over with quickly. Don’t! You must dare to take space and time. Don’t deliver your talk in a hurry with only half of the audience listening. Make sure you have all the attention. Explicitly ask for it. Take your time and enjoy the moment .

I Hope these tips will help you this end-of-year. Don’t let this opportunity go by to shine in front of your family, your colleagues, your friends or your team. And don’t forget to end with a worthy toast:

“Here’s a toast to the future, a toast to the past, and a toast to our friends, far and near.”

“be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” – benjamin franklin, “here’s to a bright new year and a fond farewell to the old;, “here’s to the things that are yet to come, and to the memories that we hold.”, “eat, drink, and be merry, leave the diet for tomorrow.”, “in victory, you deserve champagne, in defeat, you need it.” – napoleon bonaparte, “take everything in moderation, including moderation.” – oscar wilde.

Presentation Thinking & Design 

speech-guru.com/sample-speeches/new-year-speech/

speech-guru.com/sample-speeches/new-year-speech/sample-new-year-speech/

www.write-out-loud.com/christmas-speeches.html

www.extension.harvard.edu/professional-development/blog/10-tips-improving-your-public-speaking-skills

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Very valuable tips! Thank you

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Taylor Swift Teases ‘a Lot of Exciting Things Coming Up’ in Her iHeartRadio Music Awards Speech

“I’m so proud of it,” she said. “I cannot wait to share it with you.”

Last night marks Swift’s first major public appearance since she went on break following her Australia and Singapore Eras tour shows. Swift will resume her tour on May 9 in Paris, where she’ll kick off her European leg.

In her appearance last night, Swift kept her outfit simple, wearing a form-fitting blue top with gold jewelry. Read and watch her full speech below:

Hey, I wanted to say thank you so much to anyone who voted for this award. iHeart, you’ve also just been so incredibly supportive over the course of my entire career but especially this year has been pretty spectacular. I am so grateful for that. You know, to the fans, it’s completely up to you to choose how you spend your time, what concerts you want to go to, what music you want to make the soundtrack to your life, and to anyone who has included me in those choices. I’m so, so, so thankful for that. And you know, we have so many exciting things ahead of us. I’m continuing along with the tour, and most importantly, I have a brand new album called The Tortured Poets Department , which comes out on April 19, and I’m so proud of it. I cannot wait to share it with you so thank you for voting for me for this incredible honor: Artist of the Year. I am so blown away and so thankful, and I just can’t wait to keep having fun with you guys because we have a lot of exciting things coming up.

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Chiefs’ Kicker Harrison Butker to Give Commencement Speech at Benedictine College

Butker, who offered advice last year at his alma mater, Georgia Tech, is known not only for setting NFL records but also for being outspoken about his Catholic faith.

Harrison Butker, the three-time Super Bowl-winning kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs football team, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s commencement at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, the school announced Tuesday.

At the May 11 ceremony, the college will also recognize Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg, who graduated from the college in 1964 (when it was St. Benedict’s College) and recently became the first Black man and first living person to have a U.S. military base named after him, according to a press release from the school.

Butker, whose advice as last year’s graduation speaker at his alma mater, Georgia Tech , was to “get married and start a family,” is known not only for setting NFL records but also for being outspoken about his Catholic faith.

In addition to his devotion to the traditional Latin Mass, Butker, a 28-year-old father of two, frequently promotes his pro-life convictions as well as the importance of marriage and family life, often emphasizing the importance of prioritizing his vocation as a husband and father.

In an interview with EWTN News reporter Mark Irons on EWTN News In Depth last month, Butker said he wanted to encourage men, especially fathers, to “be courageous, to not be afraid to be the leader.”

“It’s something that we struggle with, I think, a lot of times: to go outside of our comfort zone and to say, ‘You know what? God has called me to be a leader and to lead by example. I’m going to lead my household, and I’m going to lead outside the world when I’m evangelizing.’ So that’s something that I’m very passionate about,” Butker said.

“I think Our Lord needs to be King,” Butker continued. “He needs to be front and center. And as Catholics, we have to be unapologetically proud of our faith and of Jesus Christ.”

After learning that the victim of a fatal shooting during the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade in February, a Catholic mother of two , was wearing his No. 7 jersey at the time she was shot, Butker gave one of his own jerseys to the family and they buried her in it.

Butker also garnered headlines during the 2023 Super Bowl when fans noticed he was wearing a scapular — a brown woolen sacramental from the Carmelite tradition, worn around the neck as a sign of consecration to Mary.

The Chiefs became back-to-back Super Bowl champions after defeating the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11. In the game, Butker kicked a 57-yard field goal, setting the record for the longest field goal ever made in a Super Bowl. He also made headlines after Super Bowl LVII in 2023 by kicking the game-winning field goal.

This year’s commencement will not be Butker’s first visit to Benedictine College, which is approximately 50 miles northwest of Kansas City. He has visited the school several times to discuss “faith, family and football, in that order,” with faculty and students.

“We are excited to introduce Harrison Butker and Lt. Gen. Gregg to our graduating seniors this May,” Benedictine College President Stephen Minnis said in the press release. “These students missed their high school graduations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so we wanted to make it up to them with a truly memorable commencement experience.”

Gregg, 95, was the first African American to reach the rank of lieutenant general in the U.S. Army. He commanded the 96th Quartermaster Direct Support Battalion, one of the largest battalions in Vietnam, for which he received the Meritorious Unit Citation. In 1977, he became the director of logistics for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He retired in 1981 after more than 30 years of service in the Army. In 2023, Fort Lee in Virginia was renamed Fort Gregg-Adams in his honor, along with that of Lt. Col. Charity Adams Earley, who served as the highest-ranking Black female officer during World War II.

CNA staff writer Jonah McKeown contributed to this story.

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OpenAI Unveils A.I. Technology That Recreates Human Voices

The start-up is sharing the technology, Voice Engine, with a small group of early testers as it tries to understand the potential dangers.

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By Cade Metz

Reporting from San Francisco

First, OpenAI offered a tool that allowed people to create digital images simply by describing what they wanted to see. Then, it built similar technology that generated full-motion video like something from a Hollywood movie.

Now, it has unveiled technology that can recreate someone’s voice.

The high-profile A.I. start-up said on Friday that a small group of businesses was testing a new OpenAI system, Voice Engine, that can recreate a person’s voice from a 15-second recording. If you upload a recording of yourself and a paragraph of text, it can read the text using a synthetic voice that sounds like yours.

The text does not have to be in your native language. If you are an English speaker, for example, it can recreate your voice in Spanish, French, Chinese or many other languages.

OpenAI is not sharing the technology more widely because it is still trying to understand its potential dangers. Like image and video generators, a voice generator could help spread disinformation across social media. It could also allow criminals to impersonate people online or during phone calls.

The company said it was particularly worried that this kind of technology could be used to break voice authenticators that control access to online banking accounts and other personal applications.

“This is a sensitive thing, and it is important to get it right,” an OpenAI product manager, Jeff Harris, said in an interview.

The company is exploring ways of watermarking synthetic voices or adding controls that prevent people from using the technology with the voices of politicians or other prominent figures.

Last month, OpenAI took a similar approach when it unveiled its video generator, Sora. It showed off the technology but did not publicly release it.

OpenAI is among the many companies that have developed a new breed of A.I. technology that can quickly and easily generate synthetic voices. They include tech giants like Google as well as start-ups like the New York-based ElevenLabs. (The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, on claims of copyright infringement involving artificial intelligence systems that generate text.)

Businesses can use these technologies to generate audiobooks, give voice to online chatbots or even build an automated radio station DJ. Since last year, OpenAI has used its technology to power a version of ChatGPT that speaks . And it has long offered businesses an array of voices that can be used for similar applications. All of them were built from clips provided by voice actors.

But the company has not yet offered a public tool that would allow individuals and businesses to recreate voices from a short clip as Voice Engine does. The ability to recreate any voice in this way, Mr. Harris said, is what makes the technology dangerous. The technology could be particularly dangerous in an election year, he said.

In January, New Hampshire residents received robocall messages that dissuaded them from voting in the state primary in a voice that was most likely artificially generated to sound like President Biden . The Federal Communications Commission later outlawed such calls .

Mr. Harris said OpenAI had no immediate plans to make money from the technology. He said the tool could be particularly useful to people who lost their voices through illness or accident.

He demonstrated how the technology had been used to recreate a woman’s voice after brain cancer damaged it. She could now speak, he said, after providing a brief recording of a presentation she had once made as a high schooler.

Cade Metz writes about artificial intelligence, driverless cars, robotics, virtual reality and other emerging areas of technology. More about Cade Metz

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David Autor, an M.I.T. economist and tech skeptic, argues that A.I. is fundamentally different  from past waves of computerization.

Economists doubt that artificial intelligence is already visible in productivity data . Big companies, however, talk often about adopting it to improve efficiency.

OpenAI unveiled Voice Engine , an A.I. technology that can recreate a person’s voice from a 15-second recording.

Amazon said it had added $2.75 billion to its investment in Anthropic , an A.I. start-up that competes with companies like OpenAI and Google.

Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee signed a bill  to prevent the use of A.I. to copy a performer’s voice. It is the first such measure in the United States.

French regulators said Google failed to notify news publishers  that it was using their articles to train its A.I. algorithms, part of a wider ruling against the company for its negotiating practices with media outlets.

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‘designing women’ creator linda bloodworth thomason to receive wga west’s top tv honor, taylor swift teases “so many exciting things ahead” while accepting artist of the year trophy at iheartradio music awards.

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Taylor Swift made an appearance at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards to accept the Artist of the Year award, among many others.

The “Bejeweled” singer was not present at the Dolby Theater, but a pre-recorded message was broadcast in which she teased “many exciting things ahead.”

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During her acceptance speech, she said, “I wanted to say thank you so much to anyone who voted for this award.”

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The singer also plugged her new album titled The Tortured Poets Department , which is set to drop on April 19.

“I’m so proud of it. I cannot wait to share it with you,” Swift said of her new album.

She ended her speech by saying, “Thank you for voting for me for this incredible honor — Artist of the Year. I am so blown away and so thankful, and I just can’t wait to keep having fun with you guys because we have a lot of exciting things coming up.”

Swift’s award was presented by former Backstreet Boys member AJ McLean and former NSync member Lance Bass. The star not only took Artist of the Year but she also won Pop Artist of the Year, Tour of the Year, Best Lyrics for “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version),” TikTok Bop of the Year for “Cruel Summer” and Favorite Tour Style.

Check out Swift’s full acceptance speech in the video above.

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Many of Trump's claims about the border immigration and crime don't stack up

Former President Donald Trump made a campaign swing through Grand Rapids on Tuesday to talk about record levels of migrants coming across the southern border without prior authorization and the impact it's having on communities ― especially in terms of crime ― more than a thousand miles away in Michigan.

As usual, Trump in many instances didn't hew to the facts or left out important context while characterizing his own record or making claims about President Joe Biden's policies, though it is without question that U.S. Border Patrol's numbers of so-called encounters with migrants trying to cross the border has exploded during Biden's term .

More: Political debate over border security slams into west Michigan as Trump visits

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has also reported that the number of removals and detentions ― as well as the number of non-detained immigrants released into the country pending a final determination on their status ― rose substantially in 2023 over the previous year . So did the number of immigrants arrested or detained on criminal charges, though that is a small fraction of the total number of people who have entered the country. And as has been reported often before, immigrants are far less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans, not least because a commission of a serious enough crime can get them deported.

Here's a look at some of Trump's claims and the facts behind them:

'Carnage and chaos and killing from all over the world'

Trump began his short speech by emphasizing how mass migration into the U.S. is generating violent crime, spotlighting the recent arrest of a man deported in 2020, who reentered the country and was accused of shooting a woman with whom he had previously had a relationship in Grand Rapids last month, though her family disputes they were close. Police have charged Brandon Ortiz-Vite, 25, with killing Ruby Garcia. But there is no evidence that migration overall has caused a spike in violent crime, if not least for the reason that violent crime was down across the U.S. last year , according to the FBI. Michigan hasn't yet put out its specific crime totals for 2023 but in 2022, v iolent crime was down from the previous year while property crimes were up.

Illegal immigration 'was at its lowest point' when Trump served

There is no question that Trump made cracking down on undocumented migrants crossing into the U.S. and expelling those already in the country a major theme of his 2016 run for the White House, just as he is doing running for reelection this year, and he enjoyed some success. Both in 2017 and in 2020, the number of southern border encounters were among the lowest they've been in decades (with the only other real exception being in 2011, just after the recession). But in 2020, Trump was helped greatly by the economic slowdown created by COVID-19 and the authority he had to turn back migrants for public health reasons (whether that was really effective as a public health measure or not) . He also saw spikes in the number of immigrants crossing the border as well and implemented some policies ― like those that wound up emphasizing family separations ― that ran into legal issues and a backlash from the public.

'People coming in from prisons and mental institutions'

This has long been a claim Trump has made, going back to when he began his 2016 election campaign, only then, as the Washington Post recently pointed out , it was all about Mexico "sending people with a lot of problems" and his implication that many, if not most, were drug users and rapists. Now (with Mexican immigration down and immigration from Central American and South America up), Trump claims that prisons and other institutions across the world are being emptied and criminals are being sent into the U.S. There is no basis for this claim that we were able to locate and the Trump campaign, when asked about it by the Free Press, offered no source material to back it up. The Post also noted studies that worldwide prison populations are up, not down, though numbers in some countries fell during the pandemic.

Crime in Venezuela is 'down 67%'

This is related to the previous claim: In Trump's speech Tuesday and in a Michigan radio interview on Monday, Trump claimed that the crime rate is down by two-thirds in the turbulent South American country and that officials there are "taking all of their gangs and criminals … and depositing them in the United States." Again, there is no evidence of this being the case, though some 8 million people in that country have attempted to flee a humanitarian crisis caused by political unrest and economic turmoil, with hundreds of thousands trying to make it into the U.S. via Mexico. Bloomberg News reported that the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence , which is part of a group called Insight Crime that tracks data internationally, said recently that the country's rate of violent death had dropped to its lowest level in more than two decades "as both criminals and victims fled the nation’s economic crisis," citing the observatory's director. But the number dropped by about a quarter year over year, not two-thirds. And while it's logical that a number of both criminals and victims made their way to the U.S., there is no evidence of any plot by Venezuelan officials to encourage it.

Chinese migrants 'all seem fit and ready for military service'

This offhand remark came up as Trump talked about the number of migrants coming from all over the world, including China, where he said 29,000 immigrants to the U.S. originated in "the last few months." Then he added the comment about their age and fitness, suggesting it was strange. Coming at a time when concerns regarding Chinese competition, technology and supply chain constraints are high, it could stoke additional fears. It is plainly true that Chinese immigration across the southern border is up: PolitiFact, a fact-checking product put out by the Poynter Institute , noted that there were some 52,000 border encounters with Chinese immigrants in fiscal 2023, far higher than the norm, and that the trend continues. But U.S. Customs and Border Protection, it said, doesn't release age or gender data and "military age" can mean different things in different countries. As for whether many of the migrants are younger men, that wouldn't be terribly surprising, given the harsh conditions in attempting such a journey. Meanwhile, there's no evidence of a Communist Party plot to send people to the U.S. or elsewhere and many believe the migrants are motivated by the same desire s for economic opportunities and political rights not available in that country.

Whitmer offering money for 'free housing for illegals'

Trump blasted Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for a program, much criticized by Republicans, through the Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Opportunity , that offers up to $500 a month to refugees and "other newcomer population-eligible households" to pay for housing. "Many refugees and other newcomers face critical housing challenges and this program will increase access to better and more affordable housing opportunities," the state website says. But as part of this program, people must qualify for the benefit and provide proof of an "eligible immigration status." It is possible that some asylum seekers, who would ultimately be found by officials to not have credible claims, could benefit — but that is different than declaring them "illegals" upfront, as Trump did.

Did Trump talk to woman's family as he claimed?

During the speech, Trump claimed to have made contact with Ruby Garcia's relatives, saying he had talked with "some of her family" ahead of his campaign event in Grand Rapids. But WOOD-TV Target 8 in Grand Rapids reported that Garcia's family, which watched the livestream at their home, was in "disbelief" at the remark, since the former president hadn't spoken to any of them. "He did not speak with any of us, so it was kind of shocking seeing that he had said that he had spoke with us, and misinforming people on live TV,” Ruby Garcia’s sister, Mavi Garcia, who has been serving as the family's spokesperson, said. She also said the extended family is close and she would know if Trump had spoken to any other members.

Contact Todd Spangler: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler .

Taylor Swift teases 'so many exciting things' in iHeartRadio Music Awards speech

Swift delivered a pre-recorded acceptance speech for her artist of the year win.

Taylor Swift teased "a lot of exciting things coming up" in her acceptance speech for artist of the year at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards Monday night.

Two boy band legends, *NSYNC's Lance Bass and AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys, introduced the category -- exchanging friendship bracelets in the process -- during the show at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on April 1.

MORE: Taylor Swift reveals 'The Tortured Poets Department' track list, collaborators

"Hey! I wanted to say thank you so much to anyone who voted for this award," Swift, who was not present to accept the award, said in a pre-recorded clip. "iHeart, you've also just been so incredibly supportive over the course of my entire career, but especially this year has been pretty spectacular. I am so grateful for that."

"You know, to the fans, it is completely up to you to choose how you spend your time, what concerts you want to go to, what music you want to make the soundtrack to your life, and to anyone who has included me in those choices, I am so, so, so thankful for that," she continued.

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Swift then teased that there are "so many exciting things" on the horizon, mentioning her ongoing Eras Tour and "most importantly" her new album, " The Tortured Poets Department ," which drops April 19.

MORE: Taylor Swift's Disney+ concert film is here: All 4 acoustic tracks revealed

"I'm so proud of it. I cannot wait to share it with you," she said. "So thank you for voting for me for this incredible honor -- artist of the year. I am so blown away and so thankful and I just can't wait to keep having fun with you guys because we have a lot of exciting things coming up. Thank you so much."

Swift also won for pop artist of the year, best lyrics for "Is It Over Now? (Taylor's Version)" from "1989 (Taylor's Version)," TikTok bop of the year for "Cruel Summer" and favorite tour style at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards.

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Trump made Ruby Garcia's murder part of the border debate. Her family says he's lying about it.

Last month it was Laken Riley in Georgia . Now it's Ruby Garcia , a Michigan woman authorities say was killed by her undocumented partner, who is being thrust into the political spotlight by former President Donald Trump.

Garcia's case received little national publicity before Trump latched onto it this week. Yet it fits into a pattern of the former president seizing on a sensational story involving an undocumented individual to juice his campaign, which has focused heavily on the immigration issue.

Trump highlighted Garcia’s death during a speech in Michigan Tuesday, prompting critics to say he is politicizing her murder. Garcia’s sister also rebuked Trump for claiming he spoke with the slain woman’s family, which she said is not true.

Hardline immigration rhetoric always has been central to Trump's political brand, and he has taken a special interest in crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.

In kicking off his first campaign for president in 2016 at Trump Tower in New York City, Trump declared that "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best... they’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

The former president often focuses on the most lurid criminal cases. Garcia was shot multiple times and left on the side of the road.

Yet evidence suggests undocumented immigrants don’t commit crimes at higher rates than the general population, and some studies show they may commit crime at lower rates, although the data is limited said Graham Ousey, a professor at William & Mary who co-wrote the book "Immigration and Crime: Taking Stock," which summarizes research on the issue. The trends are the same for violent crime, he said.

“This is a big political issue, maybe a wedge issue that I think is being adopted for a specific purpose," Ousey said. "But I think the evidence that we have doesn’t really back up the idea that we’re facing a crime wave as a result of immigration generally, or even undocumented immigration more specifically.”

Data on homicides: Laken Riley's death made the news, but undocumented migrants commit fewer homicides

Yet polls show voters are concerned about immigration and crime, and Trump is leaning into the issues hard as he works to meld them together.

GOP strategist John Yob said the issue could help Trump win over soft Republican voters in the suburbs, particularly "soccer moms" concerned about public safety. Some of these voters have been turned off by Trump and issues such as Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, and GOP efforts to restrict abortion.

"The swing voting soccer moms... have morphed into security moms who are concerned about the safety of their families as illegal immigrants move north into their communities and commit violent crimes," said Yob, a GOP consultant who has worked extensively in Michigan GOP politics and on multiple presidential campaigns.

Trump echoed those comments Tuesday during the Grand Rapids event, saying "the suburban housewives actually like Donald Trump. You know why? Because I'm the one who's gonna keep them safe."

Trump's Michigan speech was billed as "remarks on Biden's border bloodbath" and the Republican National Committee rolled out a website Tuesday with the same theme.

An RNC press release said the website is "dedicated to highlighting the horrors of Biden Migrant Crime." Trump also sent out a fundraising email Tuesday with the subject line "Build the wall - Deport them all!"

Flanked by uniformed law enforcement officers Tuesday at the Grand Rapids Convention Center, Trump repeated comments he has made previously that crimes committed by undocumented immigrants constitutes "a new form of crime, it's called migrant crime."

"It should be called Biden migrant crime, but that's too long," Trump said.

The former president devoted a significant portion of his speech to Garcia, saying she was "savagely murdered by an illegal alien criminal."

Trump rallied his supporters around Riley's death earlier this year. A Georgia nursing student, Riley was murdered in February while jogging. Police charged Jose Antonio Ibarra, who is in the country illegally, with Riley's murder.

President Joe Biden also mentioned Riley during his State of the Union address. Biden called Ibarra "an illegal" and later said he regretted using the term, prompting Trump to criticize him.

Trump has accused Biden of not doing enough to stop illegal immigration, prompting Biden to point to bipartisan border legislation he supported and Trump opposed.

U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, a Democrat who represents the Grand Rapids area, also mentioned the border bill Tuesday in arguing that Trump is more interested in "political theatre" than solving the immigration problem.

“He’s come to our community to try to sow fear and hatred and division," Scholten said. "And when we are facing such a monumental crisis at our southern border what we need now more than ever is unity, bipartisanship and people who are willing to put the political theatre aside so we can get things done."

Garcia's case garnered attention in local media in west Michigan but received little national exposure until Tuesday.

Garcia's body was found along a road near downtown Grand Rapids late in the evening on March 22. Brandon Ortiz-Vite, 25, was charged with Garcia's murder and confessed to the crime. The two were in a romantic relationship, officials said.

Ortiz-Vite came to the country "unlawfully" as a child and was given legal status through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but that expired in 2019. He was deported in 2020, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but returned illegally to the U.S. at "an unknown date."

"We threw him out of the country and crooked Joe Biden took him back," Trump said Tuesday.

Scholten called it "deeply unsettling" and "horrifying" that Trump is trying to "politicize" Garcia's death, and said he is ignoring the fact that Garcia was a victim of domestic violence and that her alleged killer obtained the weapon illegally.

"Yes, absolutely we should be talking about the fact that the individual who killed her was in this country without proper authorization," she said, adding: "But make no mistake, Ruby Garcia also died because of domestic violence and because someone had a gun who shouldn’t have had one."

Scholten noted that many women are victims of domestic violence but "you don’t see the same kind of outrage."

"I think it’s very telling that they want to politicize the immigration aspect of this because that’s the only aspect that they’re talking about,” she added.

A woman who identified herself as Garcia's sister expressed frustration on Facebook that her death had become "political," saying "I hope reporters stop suing my sisters story to turn it into some political (expletive)." Riley's father voiced similar concerns in an interview that "she's being used somewhat politically ," although other members of her family appeared with Trump at a rally last month in Georgia.

Trump said Tuesday he spoke with members of Garcia's family, but her sister told the FOX17 and Target 8 television stations that was false.

“He did not speak with any of us, so it was kind of shocking seeing that he had said that he had spoke with us, and misinforming people on live TV,” Mavi Garcia told Target 8.

Mavi Garcia also appeared to question Trump's focus on crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.

“It’s always been about illegal immigrants,” she said. “Nobody really speaks about when Americans do heinous crimes, and it’s kind of shocking why he would just bring up illegals. What about Americans who do heinous crimes like that?"

After highlighting Garcia's death Tuesday, Trump also briefly mentioned another murder by an undocumented immigrant last year in western Michigan.  Luis Bernal-Sosa was convicted in February of killing Leah Gomez. A statement from ICE says Bernal-Sosa was in the country illegally.

While Garcia's death is "tragic," Ousey said that focusing on Ortiz-Vite's immigration status "stereotypes and demonizes a group that doesn’t deserve it."

“It’s wrong and it’s unfortunate to suggest a person’s immigration status is somehow a causal factor in their behavior," Ousey said.

Yob said the murders deserve attention.

“Two murders in West Michigan is two too many and illegal immigrants do not have a right to be in our community and our voters have a right to feel safe in their own backyards," he said.

Pollster Doug Kaplan says immigration is a more potent issue than many Democrats realize, pointing to broad support for building the wall.

“People laughed at Donald Trump for it and now over 50% of the population says build the wall,” Kaplan said.

Yet Kaplan isn’t sure the issue will move college-educated women voters, as Republicans hope.

“Suburban women, will they care about that or Biden’s issues - Democracy, women’s issues?” Kaplan said. “It can go either way.”

After big loss against Iowa, LSU's Angel Reese says she's been getting death threats for a year

Angel Reese, the LSU basketball star who led her team to the NCAA women’s national championship a year ago, said that was the last time she lived without drama, as the fallout from winning the title led to death threats and hate speech hurled at her.

Following a 97-84 Elite Eight loss to Iowa on Monday night, Reese tearfully shared her challenges.

“I’ve been through so much,” she told reporters during the postgame news conference. “I’ve seen so much. I’ve been attacked so many times, death threats. I’ve been sexualized. I’ve been threatened. I’ve been so many things, and I’ve stood strong every single time.”

Reese’s turmoil began when, near the end of LSU’s victory over Iowa in last year’s title game, she approached Iowa star Caitlin Clark and waved an open hand across her face, a move popularized by WWE star John Cena to mean “You can’t see me.” Reese then pointed to her ring finger in a gesture that indicated she would earn a championship ring .

Clark had made a similar gesture to another player earlier in the tournament. 

“All this has happened since I won the national championship,” Reese said. “And it sucks, but I still wouldn’t change anything, and I would still sit here and say I’m unapologetically me. I’m going to always leave that mark and be who I am and stand on that.”

LSU teammate Flau’jae Johnson said after the game that Reese’s drama has been unwarranted.

“Everybody can have their opinion on Angel Reese, but y’all don’t know her,” Johnson said. “I know the real Angel Reese, and the person I see every day is a strong person, is a caring, loving person. But the crown she wears is heavy.”

Hailey Van Lith, a white teammate of Reese’s, said Sunday that racism was at the heart of the criticism her team has received after a Los Angeles Times column Friday described them as “dirty debutantes.” (The LA Times has since edited the piece, adding that it didn’t meet its standards.)

“A lot of the people that are making those comments are being racist towards my teammates,” she said.

After the game Monday night, Van Lith said the attacks did not defeat Reese.

“People speak hate into her life,” Van Lith said. “I’ve never seen people wish bad things on someone as much as her, and it does not affect her. She comes to practice every day. She lives her life every day. She lives how she wants to live, and she don’t let nobody change that. That’s the key to life right there. Y’all do not get to her. Let me say it again. Y’all do not get to Angel Reese. So you might want to throw the towel in because you’re wasting your energy.”

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Curtis Bunn is an Atlanta-based journalist for NBC BLK who writes about race.